


Lockpicking to Impress Girls

by Of_Princes_and_Savages



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-06
Updated: 2017-08-06
Packaged: 2018-12-11 21:57:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11723379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Of_Princes_and_Savages/pseuds/Of_Princes_and_Savages
Summary: The bad news was that they were locked out of the building, the good news was that Neal had his lock picks with him. It was a very up-and-down sort of day today.





	Lockpicking to Impress Girls

**Author's Note:**

> I found this forgotten among my documents. I should have had it posted weeks, nay, months ago, but stuff happened. Do enjoy! Based on a Tumblr post linked at the bottom.

Neal was going through a series of ups and downs today. First, he missed breakfast because it was freaking daylight savings time and he didn't have his clock set right. Luckily he found a lost fiver on the ground while he was scrambling to work, and got something to snack on out the vending machine.

It really set the precedent for how his day would go from there.

Mr. Midas was taking them to lunch at Chien-Po's down the street. It was in celebration of his retirement, it was his last week on the job before letting his daughter Abigail take over, and he wanted to treat everyone in the office. That was the good news. The bad news was that Midas lost his keys, and Abigail had to go back to the restaurant because she'd ended up leaving her purse (and keys) behind.

Oops.

Neal glanced upwards at the sky to find more bad news hanging literally over their heads. It had been gray all day. Not like dreary, reverting-to-winter gray. More like the ever-darkening gray that promised a cloudburst at any moment. And then he heard the rumble of thunder. Everyone heard it, actually, and Midas looked up nervously, scratching at his beard. "Erm...perhaps I should just call a locksmith..."

Neal hesitated, peeking up at the ugly sky again. He wasn't afraid of storms, per se, but he didn't like standing outside in them either. A flickering of light, which could have been lightning, had him fumbling in his backpack for his handy-dandy lockpicking kit.

Why did he carry a lockpicking kit? Well for one thing, his apartment door had a deadbolt with a rude sense of humor. If he shut the open door too hard, it always locked shut, so he made a habit of carrying these things in his pocket or backpack if he had to leave his apartment. And for another, you never knew when lockpicking skills might come in handy.

Hence why he called it his _handy_ -dandy lockpicking kit.

"I can get it, Mr. Midas." He offered. "Just give me a minute or two."

Midas' bushy eyebrows rose up, eyes settling on the picks Neal was plucking out the case. "Ah, Neal? Neal, son, why do you have-How long have you had those?"

"Only since I moved into my apartment. The deadbolt's kind of loose, if I shut the door hard enough it locks by itself. I've been locked out of my apartment twice, so I always keep these with me." Which was the honest truth, really. Partly.

"Uh-huh." Midas blinked, watching Neal as he knelt down and set to work prodding at the tumblers. "And that's when you learned to do...this?"

Oh dear. If Midas was trying to unlock Neal's mysterious Tragic Backstory, he was going to be sorely disappointed.

Neal's father hadn't been on the run, ( _grandfather_ might be a different story, but that's why Pop kept them an ocean apart from what Neal had gleaned over the years,) and Neal's most delinquent act as a child had been getting arrested for vandalism on the side of the Herman Cannery building. To be fair, he hadn't painted a giant, er-Well, it was supposed to be an eyeball with that, um, that...that eyeball stringy thing attached. It just so happened that spray paint was harder to control than he'd thought it would be. He should have stuck with a paintbrush.

But the point was: Neal had learned to pick locks at thirteen because, at the time, it seemed like a neat way to impress girls. His father had corrected his technique and they'd actually met Neal's stepmom, Belle, when she'd locked herself out the library and Pop opened it up for her. See? Very impressive skill to cute girls.

It was just a shame that the cute girl to see him was Emma Swan.

Emma, who, in addition to knowing Neal since college, also knew he could ride a unicycle. There was no impressing Emma Swan with a record like that, no way. It was too late. It was over. Game over. He was just glad the unicycle thing only came up in conversation and she didn't have video evidence on him. (Not that she'd use it, really, but she'd definitely tease him about that to the end of time.) Luckily, lockpicking he could do without embarrassing himself...as long as it didn't get put in his personal record in scary red letters.

A definite streak of lightning arced through the clouds when Neal finally got the door unlocked. He held it open for most of his coworkers to stream through, Midas thanked him, (warily,) and went inside to call Abigail with the news. Emma was the last one in, smiling at him.

"Why do I get the feeling you've been doing this before you're shifty apartment locked you out?"

Neal, closed the door behind him, just in time for the rain to stream down like someone had turned on the faucet. He stuck his kit back into his backpack and tried to shrug it on casually. "Well, that's my secret, isn't it?"

Emma folded her arms, still smiling. "Oh? Well. It was still impressive. You're pretty good with your hands for a guy that keeps falling out of trees."

"That was one time, and I wasn't the only drunk idiot in the tree falling down."

"No, it was three times in one day, and you also cried over seeing a baby deer in the same weekend."

"Hey," Neal protested. "One, I wasn't the guy to break anything falling out the tree. Two, I am not ashamed of crying over a fawn that was too damned small when you got drunk and kept trying to pick a fight with half the football team."

Emma opened her mouth. And then closed it and nodded. "Okay, fair enough. Still, your burglary skills are pretty impressive, I've got to give you credit for that."

"Well," Neal grinned, feigning bashfulness. "It's only breaking and entering skills. I need a mask and gloves for my burglary kit."

She laughed, turning to walk back to work. "Ooh. That is some kinky talk for the workplace Neal Gold."

Neal snorted. Wait...was she actually impressed or was she just teasing him now? Wait again. Was she impressed, teasing, or flirting with him now? Had he flirted back? Considering how his day had been a rollercoaster of good news and bad news today, he should probably be cautious about this. But then again...what's life without risks?

"Hey wait up!"

**Author's Note:**

> Inspiration here: **http://of-princes-and-savages.tumblr.com/post/161396165831/still-searching47-sailorbryant**


End file.
